Page 145 of Sunsplitter

Fionamara tried to duck one way, but Antal had her by the waist, pulling her backward. They both stumbled. She barely lifted her sword in time to deflect the aedari’s blade. She hissed her displeasurelouder.

“Together, Antal!”

Theywerefighting together—fighting one of the most dangerous beasts in the Shattered Planes, when they ought to be home, safe, Fionamara teasing him with smirks rather than dodging the lethal arcs of a sword.

But they’d chosen this fight. And he’d promised to trust her.

The aedari’s next swing came for Antal’s neck. He staggered, daggers driving the blow off target. When Fionamara charged the opening, it sickened him to leave her unguarded. Energy roiled hot in his chest as the aedari’s golden eyes snapped to her.

But merciless Void, she was beautiful when she fought.

Radiant with that crimson hair. Unflinching with her aim. Her strike sank deep, biting into the arm the aedari raised in defense.

It snarled. Another opening. Antal pushed into the gap, daggers raised, forcing the aedari to block—leaving Fionamara beneath the flare of its wings. She drove her sword into the golden feathers, energy fracturing. The aedari’s cry came furious.

Aboomshook the ground.

Down the road, the aedari magician snapped its fingers. Gold zapped through the air, igniting a glyph beside Ixli.

Then a pinpoint explosion.Boom. A shudder of leaves. Ixli stayed nimble, dancing past one explosion. Another. She pounced with binding cord in hand.

The aedari raised its arm. Clenched a fist. New glyphs glowed on its wrist.

Ixli shouted as she slammed into the ground. She didn’t get up. As the aedari held its fist, Ixli writhed and snarled against the dirt, unable to stand.

Unable to defend herself. The aedari raised its other hand.

“Go!” Fionamara shouted at Antal.

Go?Leave heralone?What did this woman think, that he was made of stone?

But there was no time.

Trust her. Trust her. Trust her.

Antal was gone in a blink. Out the other side of the teleport, daggers driving into the magician’s arm.

Never fight an aedari magician alone, said every single tacticalguide his species had ever written. And fuck him if he’d ever paid attention.Why do I need to know that?said his stupid, naïve younger self.I’ll never have to fight an aedari. That would be absurd.

The magician’s focus slipped. Ixli leapt to her feet when the glyphs extinguished.

Trust, it turned out, ran multiple ways. Ixli spun, lunging for the warrior aedari, blocking his strike at Fionamara. Her spear slashed his ribs. Fionamara swung at his neck, a shriek of energy as her sword met reinforced flesh. Not deep enough.

The magician grabbed Antal by the throat.

He snarled as it lifted him off the ground—abnormally tall, their entire wretched species. It snarled back at him. Its sunlight and burnt honey scent clogged his nose as glyphs glowed on its arms, the punctures he’d carved with his daggers knitting back into unmarred flesh.

Antal kicked hard, striking its belly with the claws of his feet, stabbing a dagger at its golden eye. He sliced its cheek as it released him.

A lucky blow. And a cautious aedari. Antal wasn’t made to face a magician, was counting down the seconds until it realized he wasn’t as much of a threat as Ixli. It raised both arms, cloaked in a constellation of lighted glyphs.

The warrior aedari let out a sharp cry.

The magician’s attention snapped to its partner. The warrior bled gold from several deep gashes, barely keeping pace with both Fionamara and Ixli striking like angry hornets. The magician’s eyes narrowed, darting from the warrior, to Antal, to… oh no, notagain.

“Drekanmis!” A new set of glyphs lit the magician’s arms.

Antal lunged for Fionamara, tackling her to the ground as the explosive glyph went off. Golden fire flashed through theclearing. Heat scorched his back, acrid smoke thick in his nose.